A redundant manipulator research testbed

This paper describes our latest progress in assembling a state-of-the-art control station devoted to solving the optimal configuration resolution problem of redundant robotic manipulators. We describe the Tulane Manipulator (TUMA I), a four degree-of-freedom planar arm that was first conceived as a “paper example” (1988) to conduct studies in redundant manipulator control. In 1993, a prototype of the robot was built and the control was implemented in C on a 386-class computer. During the last two years we have completely retrofitted the TUMA I with a modern DSP-based data acquisition and control system that will allow us to design the controller module at the block diagram level, automatically generate portable C code, and download the control algorithm directly to the DSP controller board. The paper highlights several of the station´s hardware and software components, describes the problem of self-motion, and presents some preliminary experimental self-motion results obtained on TUMA with an independent joint sliding mode controller